Many Rocky Mountains share the same bloodline with a stallion named "Old Tobe." He fathered many Rocky Mountain Horses until the age of thirty-seven in 1964. When the Rocky Mountain Horse Association was formed in 1986, it has over 10,000 horses registered with the Association. A horse by the name of "Yankee" was the last remaining son of Old Tobe at the time of the development of the registry. The Rocky Mountain Horse Association celebrated their eighteenth anniversary in 2005. The Rocky Mountain Horse has a natural speed ranging from 7 to 20 miles per hour; this is reached with no special training or action devices.
The breed was started in the early 1900s in the state of Kentucky by a man named Sam Tuttle, he is known as "the father of the breed." He was born in 1906 and passed away in 1988 at the ripe old age of 81.
"Kilburn's Chocolate Sundown" a Rocky Mountain Horse known as The Ohio Horse, sired over 600 horses alone. He is a direct descendant of "Old Tobe." He was born in 1967 and then died in 1999 at the age of thirty-one. Over 200 Rocky Mountain Horse owners from six states were present for his memorial service.
The Rocky Mountain Horse is one of the naturally gaited registered horses, gaited meaning the style of which they run or trot. This is style or type of walk that comes naturally, showing up even in young colts, it is not done through any sort of training with the horse or with any sort of movement devices. The running or trotting is a naturally smooth ride that makes it comfortable for many hours to pleasure riders.
The Denver Rocky Mountain Horse Expo is a popular horse that attracts many tourists and making the Rocky Mountain Horse even more popular. It is a three day event that is held every year.
The Rocky Mountain Horse has its own training philosophy, which means they take the Rocky Mountain Horses at a young age put them through different levels of training. They first let them roam freely in their natural environment to better understand them; they took note of the games they like to play and such. They noticed they like to play a game that resembles follow the leader, so this makes it easier to bond to the trainer once they begin, they show little resistance to being trained once they accept the trainer as the leader. One trick or procedure they teach that is common among the Rocky Horse is the "one rein stop," they teach the horse to stop with one pull of the reins. When the reins on a horse is pulled it causes an uncomfortable stretch on the horses mouth, in most cases the natural instinct for a horse is act up and want to run away. This teaching is to make them less prone to do this. Through these trainings the horse can also naturally discover their gait, instead of any artificially trained gait being imprinted into the nature of the horse.
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